About the first topic:
- Wondering if it's really necessary to use a cvar (visible to users) or you may just use internal variables (I don't know their correct name) or the returned parameter of a function, as maybe you don't need to "store" the random number for long. This is just a thought, I don't know enough about how the code internally works.
- On modern machines loading OA maps is quick. It's hard to read the "long map name" and the "short message of the day"... reading gamemode rules would probably really be comfortable on old hardware only...
About the second topic:
- Interesting... wondering how hard it would be to actually program it, and doing it in an elegant way. IIRC, in Possession the interface tells you the distance from the flag carrier, but a generic "find the flag" when nobody has it, because it would have required some "hacky" tricks. (See in some post from Sago in Possession thread... probably this one:
http://openarena.ws/board/index.php?topic=3995.msg54110#msg54110).